Animal shears



' H. KOCOUHEK.

ANIMAL SHEARS. APPLICATION FILED ocT.I1,-I92o.

Patented Jan. 24,1922.

l INVENTOR 7 fyoooure/ m A TTORNEY" of sheep shear which comprises 'a UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY IOCOUREX, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO CHICAGO FLEXIBLE SHAFT ANIMAL SHEARS.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Jan.Y 24 1922.

Application led October 11, 1920. Serial No. 416,144.

To all whom z't may concern.'

Be it known that I, HENRY Kocounnn, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and the State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Animal Shears, of which the following is a specification, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention 1s to provide an improved construction of animal shears of the general class which are h anddirected and adapted to be power-driven, and of the type which are especially adapted for sheep-shearing. It consists of the features of construction shown and described, as indicated in the claims:

In the drawings: L

Figure l isa top plan view of a sheep shear embodying this invention with the cover plate removed.

Figure 2 is a section at the line, 2 2, on Figure l. Y

Figure 3 is an inverted detail plan view of certain operatingl parts for actuating the reciprocating cutter.

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the part shown in' Figure 3.

Figure 5 is 'a'sectionat the line, 5*5, on Figure 3. y

Figure 6 and Figure 7 are views Asimilar to Figures 4 and 3, respectively, showing a modified construction. v

Figure 8 is a top plan View of the coustruction shown in Figures 6 and 7.

Figure 9 a View of a second modification.

Figure l0 is a section at the line, 10-10, on Figure 'fr'. l I

Figurell is a section at the line, ll-ll, onv Figure l0. The structure shown in the drawings'is in general, substantially ofa familiar type housing or base, 1, of which the portion,lb, may be .called the handle piece and whichV has the bearing for the driving shaft, 2, said shaft having at its forward endthe crank plate, 3, whose crank wrist or stud, 3a, carries a ball member, 3b, for engaging the vertical slot, 4a, in the rear end of the actuating lever, 4, which at its forward end isexpanded transversely to form a head, 4b, being intermediately fulcrumed upon a sphericalheaded pivot eye mounted in the Vlower side Vmg in the head of the actuating lever,

of the casing, l. A dolly pin, 8, seated at its lower end at 4c, in the upper side of the lever, 4, extends up into the turret, 9, to reach the pressure-adjusting screw, 10, of familiar construction for applying the pressure for holding the vibrating cutter, G, in proper contact with a fixed comb-cutter, 7, which is vsecured at the forward end upon the Linder side of the casing, l, all in a familiar manner. This shear is of the type which has a plurality of pressers, ll, having iinger's, 11a, for bearing upon the respect-ive blades, 6a, of the vibrating cutter, 6, said pressers having each a spindle or stem, ll,

by which the presser is pivotally mounted l in the head of the actuating lever 4, with freedom for rocking about its stem, which is cylindrical, to apply the pressure trans` mitted through the dolly pin to the actuating lever and thence to the presser, equally upon the finger or fingers of the presser which bear upon the respective blades, 6, of the vibrating cutter.

One feature of this invention relates to the means for securing the pressers at their pivotal mounting in the head of the actuating lever.v Heretoforethis has been done by means of a key pin set through the bearing of the stem of the presser in the lever head, and engaging an annular groove encompassing the cylindrical stem of the presser.V Besides the inconvenience involved in removing the key pin when it is necessary to substitute a new presser for a worn one, and the liability of the pin itself to escape in use when it is so ina-de that it can readily be removed, there has been found a further serious objection to this mode of mounting the presser, arising from the factthat this presser, which is hard tempered, and therefore liable yto breakage, when one of its fingers is brokenv is liable to turn at its bearlswinging the unbroken linger into engagement with the' lingers of the fixed comb cutter while the tool is operating at the high rate of speed at which it is operated, which frequently amounts to three thousand oscillations per minute, with the result that the comb has its lingers broken, and the entire tool is exposed to severe strain in other parts, all consequent upon the breaking of the finger of the presser. This difficulty is avoided and the injury which results from the defect mentioned is prevented by the construction shown in the' drawings which consists in providing the spindle or stem oi the presser with a `fiat key seat at one side as shown at 11X, and providing a fiat spring their engagement under the spring key when the spindles are pushed in from the open end oi the bearing. By turning the presser on its aXis in its bearing 90 degrees or more around from the position of engagement of the fiat key seaty by the spring key,;the

spindle becomes disengaged from the key and may be withdrawn. It will be understood, moreover, that the fiat key seat terminates in abrupt shoulders as seen at 12% so that the key holds the presser securely in Y the bearing against longitudinal escape or displacement; and it will be understood that the flat seat engaged by the flat key prevents the presser from turning in the bearing as itmight do upon the breaking of one Yoi: the ngers,if it were not tor this constructionv preventing it. Y

Another feature which characterizes the structure shown in the drawings, consists in thev means of securing in the head of the actuating lever the pin, 15,V which 'engageA holes, 6X, in the vibrating cutter for driving it., Customarily, heretofore, pins for this purpose have been riveted into the lever head, causing serious difficulty when it was Vnecessary to remove the pins on account ot the wear to which they arev exposed, which often has to be done in the field where tools 'and facilities are inadequate. resulting in breaking out the holes in which the pins are riveted, and thereby ruining the lever, necessitating its replacement.l Inv the construction shown in the drawings, the holes in the head of the lever in which the pins are seat.- cd are slightlytapered, andv thelnpper ends of the pins are correspondingly tapered so that-they maybe driven tightinto the lever, being prevented from escaping while in service, if they should become loose,V by the tact that the holes in the vibrating plate with which they are engaged are at all times closed at the lower end. bythe fixed comb cutter over which the vibrating platet'ravels.y

A` special feature of the. present invention is designed to permit employing the-construction which involves the pivoted pressers having fingers engaging respective blades of the vibrating cutter, in tools of which the breadth ofthe'tool the length of its cutting front,-is only sufficient for three-blades of the vibrating 'cutter or any construction in which the vibrating cutter has an odd number of blades. In such case, either two adjacent pressers must have their proximate fingers both bearing upon the same blade, or they Amust in some manner be engaged with each other so that the same blade will serve to l take the pressure from both whichV is necesv sary to counterbalance pressure o'f the remote fingers of the two adjacent pressers. There are shown in the drawings two methods of effecting this result. In Figures 1 and 5 the method consists in providing the two adjacent pressers with inter-engaging gear segments, 17, 17, by which the rockingl of' either presser is communicated in the opposite' direction to the other, so that the pressureof either is transmitted to the other in and by the rocking movementf VBy Vthis means, either ofthe two pressers which has a finger for pressing upon they blade et the cutter which is intermediate the two blades by which the remote fingers of the two'pressers are lodged, serves to transmit the resistance of that blade to the other presser 'for offsetting and balancing the resistance ofthe remote blade upon which the sole finger et" the other presser is"lodged And Vin theV Figures 4 and 5, one of the pressers is shown liaving only a single linger 'while Ythe-other presser has two fingers onev'ofwhich bears alone .uponrthe intermediate bladel ot the V cutter.

Another and substantially equivalent method of accomplishing the result, consists in making the proximate fingers of the two pressers with inter-engagement, practically equivalent to gear engagement, by which they transmit pressure'to Veach other, while at the same time both may be pressing upon Vthe intermediate blade. This construction is seen in Figures 6 and F.,the interengagenient of the proximatenflngers of the two presse-rs substantially equivalent to asegment gear, being seen at 18; third :method is shown in Figures V8, 9 rand 10, which consists in constructing the proximate fingers of the two pressers so that one extendsfbehind the other, both being lodged'upon and transmitting pressure to and'experiencingresistance from the same intermediate Vblade of the critter. The proximate lingers of this construction are shown at 19 and 20,*in'FigureS 9 and 10, mentioned,

Iclaim:- f 1. In an animal shear having a fixed comb cutter, a vibrating cutter andgan actuating lever for the latter,'the vibrating cutter hav-l ing an'odd number of blades; pressers having fingers for bearing on the blades respec- `V tively, said pressersbeing pivotallymounted on the cutteractuating lever with their pivot axessubstantially radial with respect to the lever fulcrum; twogadjacent pressers having their remote fingers bearing on nonadjacent blades, and at least one finger between said remote fingers, bearing ,on a blade intermediate said non-adjacent blade; and means by which said adjacent pressers are engage-d with each other for transmitting pressure from one to the other in rocking about their respective pivot axes on the actuating lever.

2. In the construction defined in claim l, foregoing, the means for transmitting pressure in the rocking of. the pressers, being equal gear elements on the two pressers.

3. In the construction defined in claim l, foregoing, the two adjacent pressers having each two presser fingers, their proximate fingers being positioned for pressure on the same blade,and being directly engaged with each other for transmitting pressure in their rocking movement.

4. In an animal shear having a fixed comb cutter, a vibrating cutter and an actuating lever for the latter, a vibrating cutter having a plurality of cutting blades; a plurality of pressers having fingers for pressing upon the blades respectively, said pressers having round stems by which they are pivotally mounted on the lever; a flat spring mounted for pressing laterally on said stems, the stems having fiat key seats for lodgment of said Hat spring keys, abruptly shouldered for stopping the stem longitudinally when the key is lodged in the seat.

5. In the construction defined in claim 4,

ating lever, said pins having slightly tapered stems, and the levers having correspondingly tapered holes extending through it into which the tapered pins are driven tight for holding them in the lever, and are accessible at the upper end for loosening from the lever for removal and replacement.

7. In an animal shear, having a fixed comb cutter, a vibrating cutter and an actuating lever for the latter, the vibrating cutter having an odd number of blades, pressers having fingers for bearing on the blades, respectively, said pressers being pivotally mounted on the cutter-actuating lever with their pivot axes extending longitudinally with respect to the lever; two adjacent preers having their remote fingers bearing upon non-adjacent blades of the vibrating cutter, and their proximate fingers upon the same intermediate blade.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Chicago, Illinois, this 8 day ot' October, 1920.

HENRY KOCOURJEK. 

